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Sunday, August 18, 2019

100 Rays Of Son - 98

When Opportunities Knock

When recently I was discussing his first choice of career in
Automobile Industry with Rayyan, he told me, “Maa, I never think of what could
have happened. I just see good in what has happened and I am going to be happy
with what I have. If I start thinking ‘what if’ I will end up being unhappy
forever”. I wish I could be like him, but then I somehow cannot stop thinking
what would have happened if he could have gone into automobile field.

When Rayyan was in school, he had come up with an idea about
using the power generated by rotating wheels of a vehicle to power up the
battery or something, which I cannot explain like he does. I could not
understand what he was saying, because the working methods of cars and
motorized vehicles has never been the topic of my interest. But, I did some
Google search on what he was saying, and I found actually few people had tried
it out, but unfortunately, it did not work out. This encouraged me to see a
future for Rayyan in automobile engineering. Some people ask me, why when
something he said did not work out, I was encouraged. It is because there were
others who had seen it as a potential working model. May be it needed to be
modified some more to work out. More than that, I love people coming with new
ideas which means they have critical thinking ability in the area of work. That
was what encouraged me. Later, in USA, I saw great interest Rayyan showed
working with Jay in garage and I was further convinced about his career and
Rayyan was also on the same page. But, then life doesn’t go as we want it to go
and a small mistake from his father landed him in a different career all
together. This tiny thing will remain a regret for me, no matter what Rayyan will
achieve as an animator and progresses career wise. I will always feel now that
he would have done great in the field of automobile Imagineering or something
similar, but I at the same time I am so proud of the way he is progressing
career wise.

Rayyan was at least able to take up his second passion of
animation and he is happy. Rayyan has no regrets. As Rayyan finished his
Animation course, Farheena was done with her special school training as well.
Farheena had to go to a vocational centre which was situated further from our
home, so we decided to shift there first, before looking for a job for Rayyan.
Officially, Farheena started her career before Rayyan.

I had heard about Digital Juice when helping out a friend
find job. I told Rayyan to apply for a job that company and try out his luck.
He spent some time preparing his demo reel and then went for the interview. He
landed with the job, but I was sceptical about his night-shift. Rayyan found
that the job would be great learning experience for him and was very excited to
take it up. So, he started his career there and it really helped him learn a
lot about Motion Graphics.

Though the company had good standard of work and great
learning experience, the challenge Rayyan faced there was the dress code. Since
he has never been into formal wear, it was difficult for him to manage the
shirts and formal pants. Other than that everything went on fine until nearly a
year later, the company suddenly announced that they were shutting down. Rayyan
was enjoying the learning more than the earning and was disappointed. Since, he
was there to receive Farheena when she came back from work, I had taken up full
time job for once in my life. Everything had to be shuffled once again.

Few weeks went by as Rayyan attended few interviews but
could not take up job due to distance, work environment, mismatch of work
requirement and many other things. I told him to wait for the right job rather
than jumping into just anything that came his way. Finally he found something
he loved and was waiting for their call. It did not come by. I came across an
ad for a company which was very close to our home. I informed Rayyan to check
it out. He went for the interview and came back highly excited because his boss
interviewed him in Jeans and T-shirt. He got the job in the company and he
decided to take it ahead. The same day, the job he had applied for earlier
responded calling him in. Somehow, since Rayyan already had the offer letter,
he went ahead with the job giving up the one he coveted for long. It was not an
easy decision to make.

When he started, he had no clue what the whole project was
about. When he realized, it became a passion for him. His company was competing
in Global Learning XPRIZE, which was associated with the Elon Musk. That name
ignited lot of excitement in Rayyan. The company was looking to create scalable
solutions to enable children to teach themselves basic reading, writing and
arithmetic in short duration of time. Rayyan would come home excited most of
the days and would discuss his project so often with me. They were working in
Swahili language to reach out to children in Africa.

Meanwhile, Farheena’s vocational centre shifted to a new
place and we had to shift to a new home again. Meanwhile, I got back to working
from home like earlier. Rayyan was working with more passion as the days of
result were coming near. I was as much excited about the project as was Rayyan.
Finally the result was out and to the great surprise of everyone the start-up
from Bangalore was the only Indian company among the top 5 finalists in the
much coveted XPRIZE. Rayyan had a lot of trust in the project and his boss, but
that did not take away the shock, surprise and delight even a bit. When Rayyan
took up the job, little did he expect such a big boost for his career, yet here
it was. I am not sure how is he going to beat that high peak in his career
curve ever in his life, but then life is unpredictable and we will never know.

This also enabled Rayyan to help me out with saving Giggle
Garden which was taking baby steps. I had started the school with a working
partner who had to back off due to travel and health issues. Rayyan decided to
buy out her share and become a part of Giggle Garden because he knew how much
this project meant for me. At times things work out in mysterious ways and we
feel blessed. I cannot stop being overwhelmed thinking how his company winning
the XPRIZE saved Giggle Garden from closing down when the partner suddenly
backed off and demanded I refund her share as soon as possible. At that time,
the only option I had was to sell off all the materials we had bought to run
the school and pay her.

When the project was coming to an end, Rayyan got an offer
through an acquaintance who remembered him from the days of Arena. His team lead
from Digital Juice had also recommended his name at BYJU'S which paved his way
there even before he came out of his previous company.He had enjoyed working in
the company which had its share of fun and parties along with the great
achievement. As his work with Chimple was over, he had just enough time to
finish the interviews, demo-reel before taking up the new job which started on
his birthday last year. It has been a good progress for him so far.

I am not sure how, but life is pushing Rayyan towards education
and teaching, since his mom is highly passionate teacher. At present, Rayyan is
back to enjoying his work, though travel in the heavy traffic of Bangalore is
something he doesn’t look forward to. I wish him good luck and also thank him
for the gift of Giggle Garden, which is the best thing I have done in my life
career wise. He not only loves what he does but also helped me do what I love
the best.

He is happy and content with the way his career is
progressing. What else can I ask for?